Gokoku-ji, Buddhist temple in Naha, Japan.

Gokoku-ji is a Shingon Buddhist temple on a bluff in Naha, with the mountain name Hatsuyama and the cloister name Sankō-in. Its main image is the bodhisattva Shō Kannon. Founded in 1367 as the jingū-ji of Naminoue Shrine, it is the oldest surviving temple in Okinawa and the head temple of Shingon Buddhism in the Ryukyus.

Founded in 1367 as the tutelary temple of Naminoue Shrine, Gokoku-ji was the head temple of Shingon Buddhism in the Ryukyu Kingdom. From 1846 the missionary Bernard Jean Bettelheim occupied it for seven years, and in 1853 Commodore Perry set up a base in its grounds. Destroyed in the 1945 battle of Okinawa, it was rebuilt in 1947 and returned to its original site in 1952.

Gokoku-ji is the head temple of Shingon Buddhism in Ryukyu and the oldest surviving temple in Okinawa. Its mountain name is Hajo-zan and its principal image is Sho Kannon Bosatsu. From King Bunei to King Sho Tai, each Ryukyuan king came here on accession with several hundred retainers, and a cup binding lord and subject was exchanged in the main hall. In the grounds stand monuments to Dr. Bettelheim and to Nakachi Kijin, who learned cowpox vaccination from him.

The temple stands on the bluff at Naminoue, beside Naminoue Shrine, overlooking the beach and ocean. It was rebuilt in 1947 in barracks style on the site of the Okinawa Prison staff quarters, then returned to its original location in 1952. In the grounds stand monuments to Dr. Bettelheim and to Nakachi Norihito, who learned cowpox vaccination from him.

The temple bell forged in 1456 under King Shō Taikyū was given to Commodore Perry in 1854 after a bell from Shuri proved imperfect. Rejected by the Washington Monument committee, it went to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and was returned to Okinawa in 1987.